Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Diy play birthday cake

DIY Play Cake

I've made several different play foods out of felt for my kiddos to play with, but the one thing they needed most was a cake. They are always throwing birthday parties for each other and what not, and I wanted to make one for them.

I made one myself out of only felt. . . well. . . it didnt hold shape, so as i looked online for how to fix it (and i did, ill post it later hopefully) I found this tutorial here at she wears flowers for one using a hat box. I loved the idea of one with storage for decorations, but didnt have a hat box, or the metal for the outside of it, but to my surprise while searching my craft pile, i found this old cookie tin and thought YES same idea, minus having to cut metal!!

The idea: wrap the tin in felt to look like a cake, make felt decorations that can store inside it, add magnets to the decorations and they stick on the cake. . . awesome, right!!

First, cover the cake! I wanted it to be chocolate, so found a nice brown and cut a strip (or two) the same width as the depth of the tin, sewed them together to the right circumference (to fit snug)

Next, turn this brown circle inside right, and slip over the tin.

Important: The tin needs to close, so make sure you leave the space at the top that the lids comes down to uncovered. Extra will hang over bottom.

Wrap that extra around the bottom and hot glue it in place

Next cut a circle a bit bigger than the lid, and hot glue it on so it touches the rim

mine was a little short but thats ok, im adding a ruffle

I saw instructions for making the felt ruffle HERE (she wears flowers)

after making the ruffle, (well several sewed together long enough to go around) I glued it on the rim of the lid like so:

I made sure it hung over a little that way it would cover up any gap i may have had in the felt

see how cute!!

I liked the ruffle so much i decided to make another for the bottom of the cake too, to more resemble the piped decorative icing on a real cake.

Bottom and top of cake

And then what the kids loved best. . . the decorations!!

For the candles theres a better turorial here.

I just cut the little flame shapes out of red and yellow felt and glued them together with hot glue, then took a 2" square and rolled it up, glued the end to together, glued flame atop, and a round magnet on bottom :)

felt sticks to felt, so i cut random shapes out for them to stick on the cake

How very cute, you did an excellent job making your cake. My last job and I must add the best job that I ever had and that I absolutely LOVED was a preschool teacher, I worked as the assistant teacher and we taught 3 yr olds. The following was in place before I started working there and was part of the teaching program which was fantastic. We had a birthday cake that was made of one of those round boxes that you buy at a craft store, very similar to a hat box though much smaller. We used ours to celebrate the children's birthdays. Our cake had holes made by pushing through birthday candle holders and reinforced the holders with glue so that they wouldn't topple over especially while lit :). The cake itself was decorated with rickrack, sequins and whatever else was available and foam letters were used for "HAPPY BIRTHDAY". We had a silly birthday hat for the birthday child to wear during the celebration and we lit the candles and the class sang the birthday song. A photo was taken of each child in the silly hat and it went in a special album that was made for each child to take home at the end of the year. Those pictures were adorable! That age is such a fun age, their little minds are growing and they suck up information like a sponge (good and bad). It's so important to help children along creatively when they are young and learn how to use imagination to play. I can't tell you how many children just don't have those skills. The first year that I witnessed it I was in total shock, I mean who would ever think that a child wouldn't know how to play creatively. Then I started thinking about it and it made perfect since; our electronic games (even those that are teaching games like shapes,colors etc) provide everything necessary to set the scene, and the same goes with TV. If the child isn't played with by an adult that encourages them to imagine what something might be or look like etc. they have no idea that the concept exists. Eventually the child would catch up but it took a lot of one on one roll playing with a teacher. In the meantime other children that were able to independently play would get frustrated with the other child and even though they were playing in the same center they each played alone not knowing how to play with the other, a sad site indeed. So, kudos to you for helping the minds of your youngsters mind, they are blessed indeed.

About Me

I'm a 31 year old mother of 3. Just celebrated my 11th anniversary with the love of my life. I have always enjoyed being a SAHM, and crafting in general. After the birth of my daughter, my love for sewing grew, and with my son and next baby the need for organizational ideas and money saving diy everything! lol